Fijan man on trial for knifing his British wife to death after she wanted to share her inheritance with her children

A British wife was stabbed to death 'in cold blood' by her Fijian husband who was furious at her plans to share her inheritance with her children from a previous marriage, a court heard today.

Wendy Singh, 39, from Great Yarmouth, died in a pool of her own blood after her husband, Raymond Singh, 30, driven by 'greed and selfish financial gains', stabbed her numerous times and slashed her throat, the court in the Fijian capital, Suva, was told.

Singh, a journalist who was born in Fiji but has worked on provincial newspapers in Britain, has yet to make a plea as his murder trial gets underway in the High Court.

Wendy Singh was found stabbed to death in Fiji in May 2008. Her husband Raymond Singh is on trial charged with the 39-year-old's murder

If found guilty he faces life in jail and the prosecution indicated they will be asking for the maximum sentence, with State prosecutor Aca Raiyawa commenting: 'We want to show that the accused is not fit to be among members of society.'

The couple lived in both Great Yarmouth and Ipswich before moving to Fiji in 2006, where Singh resumed work on newspapers. They lived in the home of a former editor, an Australian, who had been deported from the country.

And it was in that house that the couple were heard arguing over Wendy's inheritance, said Mr Raiyawa - and where Mrs Singh was found dead, lying face up in a pool of blood.

The argument had started, said the prosecutor, when Mrs Singh's 15- year-old son, George Barrot, from her previous marriage, joined the couple and their two children at a Suva cafe.

'The cafe owner, Gina Jeet, will tell the court that Raymond Singh objected to George being there and argued that it was supposed to be a family day out.

'The couple had been consuming wine while sitting at the cafe and later on went to a restaurant to have dinner with a friend,' said Mr Raiyawa.

It was there, he said, that 'Wendy had declared her intention of giving some of her assets to George and another elder child who was in England.'

But it was in the cafe, said Mr Raiyawa, that the argument had begun and came to a point where George Barrot challenged Singh to a fight - and a scuffle took place between them.

When Miss Jeet was called to the witness box she told how Mrs Singh arrived at the cafe with her husband and their two children, three- year-old Caleb and three-month-old Johan.

When George joined them, she heard Raymond Singh say 'What is he doing here?' Wendy had smiled back at him and said: 'Darling, he is also your son,' and had added that she wanted the teenager to inherit some of her valuables when he was 16.

Singh asked about his children and his wife had replied that when they grew up they would have their share.

Later that evening, said neighbour Sean Koihoi, he heard Wendy shout from her house 'please stop'. He could see Raymond Singh through the kitchen window and he was staring at the floor.

'He then came out of the house with the baby in his arms, he opened the driver's side of the car and threw the baby onto the back seat and forced the small boy onto the back seat before driving off.'

As the trial, expected to last a month, gets under way, Mrs Singh's sister, Christine Singer, said at her home on the Isle of Wight that opening the case had revived memories of what happened.

'Christmas was hard and so was New Year,' she said. 'Today I am very emotional and agitated - I didn't think I would be, but it has shaken it back up again.'

She is due to give evidence to the trial via video-link next Monday, along with George, now 16, and Mrs Singh's older child Clair, 18.

'There has to be justice at the end of the day' said Mrs Singer.

Mrs Singh's body was flown back to England for burial with funds raised by the Lucie Blackman Trust, set up in memory of the 21-year-old British woman who was murdered in Japan nearly nine years ago.